


Regarding Armor

by Slybrarian



Series: Banned Together 2020 [6]
Category: Star Wars: Rebels, The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Cultural Differences, Gen, Mandalorian Culture, no beta we die like stormtroopers, parenting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-02
Updated: 2020-06-02
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:06:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24512026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Slybrarian/pseuds/Slybrarian
Summary: In which there are misunderstandings regarding the nature of Mandalorian helmets and the wearing thereof.
Series: Banned Together 2020 [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1760245
Comments: 16
Kudos: 211
Collections: Banned Together Bingo 2020





	Regarding Armor

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the "Cross-Cultural Misunderstandings" box on my [Banned Together Bingo card](https://slybrarian.dreamwidth.org/76058.html).

It's not that Sabine didn't like babies. It was just that, well, she hadn't spent a lot of time around them and didn't really know what to do with them. It wasn't something that had ever been covered in her training, be it Mandalorian, Imperial, or Rebel. What experience she did have was with Jace, and while he was the same color as this one, he wasn't literally old enough to be Sabine's mother. Assuming this infant was a he; even if Sabine had been adventurous to double-check she had no idea what genders looked like for that species.

"I don't suppose your dad has finger paints around here, does he?" she asked the child. "Crayons? Do you even have any toys at all?"

Rummaging around the hold of the ship turned up nothing. Even by Mandalorian standards, that was a bit depressing. Maybe she'd have Hera send some hand-me-downs, or pick out something species-appropriate from the Alliance creches. It seemed like a better idea than trying to find proper Mandalorian toys; her best bet for those would be calling her mother or brother, and there was no way she was having either of those conversations. 

She felt a touch at her leg and found the child had somehow hopped down from the counter he'd been sitting on and come over to her without any sound. Sabine sat down cross-legged in front of him and allowed him to repeatedly touch parts of her armor, each a different color than the last. 

"Different than what you're used to, huh?" Sabine asked. There wasn't any response; apparently mobility did not come with speech. If anything, the little creature was eerily silent. "It's not as stealthy as your dad's, but I like to think style adds some tactical value of its own. Want to take a closer look?"

Sabine took her bucket off, shaking her hair free and taking a breath of unfiltered air, and offered it out. The child's tiny eyes, normally kept halfway closed, widened comically. Moments later it's mouth opened as well and a strange, high-pitched wail came out. It was like a tea kettle going off, low at first but rapidly rising in both pitch and volume.

Seconds later, Din Djarin and Ashoka came rushing up the Razorcrest's ramp. Sabine looked helplessly between them and the child as the noise continued, accompanied by tiny fists beating at her helmet.

"What did you do?" Djarin asked, stalking over to them and bending over to scoop the child into his arms. 

"I don't know!" Sabine protested, scrambling to her feet.. "Maybe it's just hungry. Babies cry for no reason!"

"Not this one." He started gently rocking and shaking the child as it clung to his breastplate, slowly quieting down.

"Do you know that for sure?" She looked at Ahsoka, who had apparently met one of these things, or been raised by one, or something. The old version of Jedi were even strangers the ones she'd known.

"While Master Yoda never sounded like this, he was nine hundred years old, which was apparently elderly even for his species. Given how he'd act when the cafeteria droids got his meals wrong, I wouldn't be surprised if a younger version made this kind of racket if it got cranky about its food." Ahsoka raised her hand and closed her eyes, her face shifting into one of those 'doing weird force stuff' expressions they all got. "He was frightened by something you did."

"All I did was hand it my helmet." Sabine could feel Djarin silently judging her from behind his eye slits and glared right back. Their staring match didn't have time to really get started, because the child reached up to grasp the lower edge of Djarin's own helmet and pushed up. 

"Hey! Hey, no, we don't do that!" Djarin said, trying to pry the child's hands off while still keeping one arm under its rear. It took several tries but it finally settled down again. That proved to be a ruse, because just as Djarin relaxed the helmet started lifting itself up, briefly exposing a flash of neck before he grabbed it with a squawk. An invisible tug-of-war proceeded until Ahsoka took the child herself so Djarin could get his gear locked back into place. 

Ahsoka chuckled suddenly and told Sabine, "He thinks you pulled your face off."

"What? Why would - no." Sabine looked at Djarin. "You do take your helmet off around him, right?"

"Of course not."

"Why not?"

"It's the Way."

"That doesn't apply to your own family! Kids need to see faces, not just helmets."

Ahsoka made a soft cough. "Excuse me, but I appear to be missing some context."

"As adults," Djarin said, "Mandalorians never take off our beskar'gam around others, especially our helmets."

"Really."

"Yes. This is the Way."

"But I've seen hundreds of Mandalorians without armor. Thousands."

"Mandalorians who live by the warrior code, not our civilians."

Ahsoka looked over at Sabine, no doubt thinking of the many Mandalorian extremists who had taken their helmets off around her.

"Our armor is a symbol of our heritage and unity as a people, whether we're born as Mandalorians or adopted," Sabine explained. "We're supposed to wear it in public, but some people take the code very literally and never remove it outside their homes. Or at all if anyone else is around. Most of us don't take it to that level. Even House Vizsla."

"Your cousin Paz does," Djarin pointed out. "Perhaps if more Mandalorians had adhered strictly to the Way, we wouldn't have been occupied and scattered across the galaxy."

"Yeah, well, if Pre Vizla and the rest of your Death Watch buddies hadn't decided to team up with a crazy Sith Lord, maybe the entire galaxy wouldn't have been taken over by the Empire."

Before the pair of them could go at it like angry tookas, Ahsoka said, "This sounds like debates over which version of the Jedi Code to use. Fascinating, and also irrelevant to our current mission. Shall we get back to planning?"

"Very well," Djarin said, pointedly retrieving some sort of baby bandoleer from the wall and stuffing the child into it. 

"Sure thing," Sabine said. Maybe calling her mom was a good idea after all, because this guy clearly needed some parenting advice.


End file.
